South Africa: SA At a Rubicon - Crime, Power and a High-Stakes Paddle Into 2026

28 December 2025
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Marianne Thamm

Local government elections, political fallout from two commissions and a possible coup plot uncovered - 2026 is the year when things get real.

An unscheduled press conference by KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi on 6 July 2025 set the stage for 2026 and even 2027, when the ANC and South Africa will face crossing a churning Rubicon. Right now, though, our Rubicon still smells more like S**t Creek.

But 2026 is the year we reach for the paddles, shove off for the rapids of what will be highly contested local government elections (on a date yet to be determined), and hope for clearer water ahead.

The day Mkhwanazi confirmed the suspected nexus between organised crime syndicates, law enforcement, drug cartels and government officials, everything changed in South Africa.

Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn

Prompted by an apparent order from Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu to shut down the Political Killings Task Team (PKTT), the lieutenant-general went ballistic and in the process shot up the Most Handsome Uniformed Strongman in Africa charts (with Ibrahim Traoré still at No 1).

Nhlanhla "Lucky" Mkhwanazi named names and things, and the country has not been the same since that press conference.

Local government elections: the ANC

The ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa are limping into local government elections after having lost the overall majority in 2024, and being forced to form...

Read the full story on Daily Maverick.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2025 Daily Maverick. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 90 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.